MONITORING, PREDICTING AND TREATING CLINICAL EPISODES

• US 20190320987A1
• Filed: 02/15/2019
• Published: 10/24/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hill-Rom Services Incorporated (Baxter International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EarlySense Ltd.
• Inventors: Halperin, Avner, Meger, Guy
• Granted Patent: US 10,786,211 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/002 Monitoring the patient using a local or closed circuit, e.g. in a room or building A61B5/0017 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/11 Measuring movement of the entire body or parts thereof, e.g. head or hand tremor, mobility of a limb for measuring pulse A61B5/02 ;A61B5/1038 takes precedence; motion detection to correct for motion artifacts in physiological signals A61B5/721
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1115 Monitoring leaving of a patient support, e.g. a bed or a wheelchair
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6891 Furniture
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6892 Mats
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7282 Event detection, e.g. detecting unique waveforms indicative of a medical condition A61B5/4094, A61B5/4818, A61B5/349, A61B5/0823 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/746 Alarms related to a physiological condition, e.g. details of setting alarm thresholds or avoiding false alarms alarms per se G08B
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0211 Combination with medical sensor, e.g. for measuring heart rate, temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0461 integrated or attached to an item closely associated with the person but not worn by the person, e.g. chair, walking stick, bed sensor
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/006 Alarm destination chosen according to type of event, e.g. in case of fire phone the fire service, in case of medical emergency phone the ambulance
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/60 relating to nutrition control, e.g. diets
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

Apparatus and methods are described, including apparatus for use with a plurality of clinicians. The apparatus includes a patient-monitoring system, including a plurality of clinical sensors, configured to detect physiological parameters of respective patients, and to generate respective sensor signals in response thereto. At least one output unit is configured to generate an output to clinicians who are caring for the patients, in response to the sensor signals. A monitoring system (a) analyzes clinician performance in responding to the output of the output unit, and (b) generates an indication of a performance level of the clinicians in response to the analyses. Other applications are also described.

Claims

1. Apparatus for use with a plurality of patients, the apparatus comprising:

a plurality of sensors configured to detect physiological parameters of respective patients, and to generate respective sensor signals in response thereto;

at least one output unit configured to generate an output to clinicians who are caring for the patients, in response to the sensor signals; and

a monitoring system configured to;

analyze clinician performance in responding to the output of the at least one output unit; and

generate an indication of a performance level of the clinicians in response to the analyzing of the clinician performance.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring system is further configured to receive the sensor signals.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is for use with a plurality of resting surfaces, respective patients of the plurality of patients resting on respective resting surfaces of the plurality of resting surfaces, and wherein respective sensors of the plurality of sensors are configured to be coupled to respective resting surfaces of the plurality of resting surfaces.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one output unit is configured to generate alerts in response to the sensor signals, and wherein the monitoring system is configured to measure the performance level of the clinicians by analyzing a number of alerts generated over a given period of time.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one output unit is configured to generate alerts in response to the sensor signals, wherein, in measuring the performance level of the clinicians, the monitoring system is configured to account for a level of sensitivity of the apparatus to respective sensor signals.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring system is configured to generate the indication of the performance level of the clinicians by measuring the performance level of the clinicians with respect to a standard performance level.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the monitoring system is configured to measure the performance level of the clinicians with respect to the standard performance level, by measuring the performance level of the clinicians with respect to an average historic performance level over a given time period.

8. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the monitoring system is configured to communicate with at least one similar monitoring system that is configured to perform monitoring at at least one peer site, and wherein the monitoring system is configured to measure the performance level of the clinicians with respect to the standard performance level, by measuring the performance level of the clinicians with respect to a performance level of clinicians at the at least one peer site, the performance level of the clinicians at the at least one peer site being determined by the at least one similar monitoring system.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one output unit is configured to generate alerts in response to the sensor signals, and wherein the monitoring system is configured to analyze clinician performance by analyzing a response time of the clinicians to the generated alerts.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the monitoring system is configured to receive an input from a clinician who is responding to an alert that is indicative of the clinician having responded to the alert, and to analyze clinician performance in response thereto.

11. The apparatus according to claim 9,

further comprising a location-sensing system configured to identify respective locations of a plurality of clinicians, and to generate a location-sensing-system signal in response thereto,

wherein the monitoring system is configured to:

receive the location-sensing system signal,

determine that at least one of the clinicians has responded to the alert by analyzing the location-sensing system signal, and

analyze clinician performance in response thereto.

12. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the monitoring system is configured to:

analyze the sensor signals,

determine that a clinician has responded to an alert by determining that there has been a change in one of the sensor signals that is indicative of a clinician having responded to the alert, and

analyze clinician performance in response thereto.

13. Apparatus for use with a plurality of patients, the apparatus comprising:

a plurality of sensors configured to detect physiological parameters of respective patients, and to generate respective sensor signals in response thereto;

at least one output unit configured to generate alerts in response to the plurality of sensor signals; and

a monitoring system configured to;

analyze a rate at which the alerts are generated,

in response thereto, determine that a setting of the at least one output unit should be changed, and

in response thereto, perform an action selected from the group consisting of

generating an output that is indicative of a recommended change to the setting of the at least one output unit, and

automatically changing the setting of the at least one output unit.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the apparatus is for use with a plurality of resting surfaces, respective patients of the plurality of patients resting on respective resting surfaces of the plurality of resting surfaces, and wherein respective sensors of the plurality of sensors are configured to be coupled to respective resting surfaces of the plurality of resting surfaces.

15. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the monitoring system is configured to generate an output that is indicative of the recommended change to the setting of the at least one output unit in response to determining that a setting of the at least one output unit should be changed.

16. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the monitoring system is configured to automatically change the setting of the at least one output unit in response to determining that a setting of the at least one output unit should be changed.

17. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the monitoring system is configured to determine that the setting of the at least one output unit should be changed by determining that a threshold used by the at least one output unit should be changed.

18. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the monitoring system is configured to determine that the setting of the at least one output unit should be changed in a manner that will lower the rate at which the alerts are generated, in response to the rate at which the alerts are generated exceeding a threshold rate.

19. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the monitoring system is configured to determine that the setting of the at least one output unit should be changed in a manner that will increase the rate at which the alerts are generated, in response to the rate at which the alerts are generated being below a threshold rate.

20. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the monitoring system is configured to determine that the setting of the at least one output unit should be changed by determining that a general setting of the at least one output unit should be changed in a manner that affects a response of the at least one output unit to each one of the plurality of sensor signals.

21. The apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the monitoring system is configured to determine that the general setting of the at least one output unit should be changed, in response to determining an overall alert rate at which alerts are generated based on the sensor signals from all of the plurality of sensors.

22. Apparatus for use with a plurality of patients, the apparatus comprising:

a plurality of sensors configured to detect physiological parameters of respective patients, and to generate respective sensor signals in response thereto;

at least one output unit configured to generate alerts in response to the sensor signals; and

a monitoring system that is configured to automatically change alert settings of each of the plurality of sensors based on time of day.

23. The apparatus according to claim 22, wherein the apparatus is for use with a plurality of resting surfaces, respective patients of the plurality of patients resting on respective resting surfaces of the plurality of resting surfaces, and wherein respective sensors of the plurality of sensors are configured to be coupled to respective resting surfaces of the plurality of resting surfaces.